Trustee Adela Segovia asked whether the purchase could be covered by the district's 2010 bond, but Associate Superintendent Kamal ElHabr said radio equipment wasn't specifically included in the bond proposal and that money is needed for other capital projects.

Ward told trustees that new Federal Communications Commission rules would require equipment upgrades soon and it would be wasteful to upgrade an analog system with a single antenna that has poor reception outside and no reception in many district buildings.

He played several clips to demonstrate the failures of the current system, including one in which officers from Highlands tried in vain to report their location to a dispatcher.

“Give me the other street. We're not copying the other street,” the dispatcher said. “Roland and what?”

The officers had stopped a man who had earlier set fire to his wife, Ward said.

The current system also offers no way to communicate with other agencies, leaving officers to resort to cellphones to call the San Antonio Police Department.

“The lack of interoperability with the San Antonio Police Department and other departments hinders us greatly,” Ward said.

The new system will allow officers to simply flip a switch to talk with their SAPD counterparts.